Australia Tesla FSD Launch Imminent for Friday 29 August 2025?

Hey everyone, welcome to a very late night episode of the TV show by Ludacris Feed Live.

I am very sorry for the very late start, but it has been a hectic day at work, but thank

you so much for joining us today, or tonight rather.

I promise you it will be worth your while staying up with us, so it's going to be

a great show.

Just to talk about, well really, there's only one massive thing to talk about, isn't

there?

Today?

Maybe it's the thing we shouldn't be talking about, but we'll talk about it anyway.

Regardless, let's welcome our co-host for this evening as always, the one and only

Hollywood Rears.

Hello Rears, how are you?

Hey Tom, going well?

No need to apologize, as I always say to the people that we know, Tom's taking

care of business regardless of wherever he is, but you're on now, we're live,

we've got heaps, heaps to go through, our viewers and listeners have been eagerly

waiting and we've been talking about quite a few different issues in the chat, which

I'm sure we will run through, so exciting show tonight.

Thank you Rears and yes, thank you for your patience, literally as I look after

my patience and yeah, it's good to be on the show and chatting about that which

we must not name very shortly.

Let's welcome Roland, our regular guest on the show from Zapt, a YouTube

channel.

Hello Roland, how are you?

Hey Tom, hey Rears, hi all, very well thanks.

Good to see you, are you excited about the show tonight?

Again, I apologize for the late start Roland, thank you for joining us so late.

Always, always exciting.

Excellent, well, welcome our regular viewers as well, thank you for joining

us and if you're watching on replay, well I guess the delayed

telecast won't matter because you're watching on replay and if you listen to

us on podcast, hello as well, welcome.

Before we kick off tonight's show, I just want to thank our sponsors as always.

Let's say thank you to my car, Tyrone Auto, thank you to Handcook Driving

Emotion and thank you to Carlib as well, Data and Power, Australia's

EV Revolution.

Now to celebrate the feature that Tesla has, is promising possibly to

release on Friday in Australia, that which must not be named at this

point, to celebrate that I've actually got some products to give away,

some Tesla products, believe it or not.

So if you're watching on replay, this is open to you as well and also an

audio podcast.

We've got actually three mobile wall connectors to give away.

So what they call, no mobile connectors, Tesla mobile connectors

to give away and also two wall connectors to give away.

So five products in total.

So in order to win one of these beauties, you must email me,

TomoLudacrisFeed.com and state in the email, you're supporting, I guess,

reasons why you should win one of these products, right?

So if you include pictures and videos or link to videos, even better.

And of course, by doing that, you allow us to broadcast those videos

and pictures later on in the stream or in other content on Ludacris

Feed as well. So once again, reminder, we've got three mobile

connectors to give away and two wall connectors to give away.

Generation three, so five Tesla products to give away.

Email me your reasons why you should win one of these products.

So yeah, take it away.

All right, gents.

Now we should get on to business speaking of big news, of course,

in the last couple of days from not from Tesla themselves, but from,

I guess, other media outlets, you know, suggesting a Tesla feature

is on the cards for Friday, 29th of August, 2025, Australian time.

So let's put the first, I guess, article up.

No, that's not it.

That's our sponsors.

This is it.

So I was first alerted to this from one of our viewers, Rob S.

So Tesla to supposedly make an announcement for a new offering

for Australia and New Zealand on Friday, 29th of August.

If you've got to read that article, you know, it hints at three

possible features or things that Tesla want to talk about or release.

FSD, of course, Model Y and Cybertruck.

They were the three front runners when this article came out.

And then as they were telling us today, we saw videos like this one.

This, I believe, Riz and Roland.

This is Ben McKinnon, one of the journalists who was able to showcase

this product in this short that was shown on Twitter or X.

And it's clearly FSD, right?

We can name it.

It looks like FSD and it looks like Australian roads from this video.

Could it be anything else Riz at this stage from this video?

Well, look, I think it's explaining quite a lot.

He's not using his hands on the steering wheels.

And yeah, I guess it's one of those things.

It's we can't talk about it, but we can talk about it.

So it's a little bit strange in the way this all has sort of come about.

But apparently, you know, this multiple media outlets have said

that they were up in Brisbane doing some, I guess, getting a showcase.

Of what appears to be FSD could be something else.

This could be the interior of the new Roadster, I don't know,

or the Cybertruck, anything's possible.

But that's that's what it looks like at the moment.

Roland Roland, Roland Thoughts FSD Model Y.

What is this?

Oh, I wish I could say it's a Model Y performance, but it's real.

He's he he definitely needs his hands on that.

Yeah. What's interesting, actually, guys, is that in Australia,

I'm sure FSD will be classified as Level Two Autonomy,

which means that you still need your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road.

Right. Obviously, this gentleman here is not having his hands on the wheel.

I mean, how do we test FSD?

I guess we are seeing videos in Australia.

We've got Melbourne and Sydney with the test FSD videos.

The test has always got the hands very close to on the wheel itself.

I suppose that's the way we should play it, right?

If you want to play by the rules here in Australia.

Well, I think one way you can get away with it is every couple of seconds

just brush your hair as this gentleman does,

which is basically the same as making sure you've got your hands on the wheel.

Here we go. He just did it right now.

On prompt, on cue.

Just indicates to the car to say, hey, I'm here.

I've got here and I'm paying attention.

Well, I mean, he is paying attention to be fair.

He's looking at the camera occasionally.

That's fine. I mean, look, Darryl makes a point.

Someone said possible cyber truck

because they have launched the cyber truck in Korea.

That's true. We'll get to that later on in the show.

I think that's probably the first market outside of North America

that the cyber truck will be launching in.

So that's exciting as well.

And look, you know, today's show is going to be very top heavy, Tesla heavy,

just just because the nature of the game, Friday's big announcement.

So if you're not a Tesla fan, we apologize already.

But, you know, it is a Tesla heavy show

just because of what's happening on Friday.

Yeah. And Gaffer, who's been a member for 45 months.

Thank you, Gaffer. That's fantastic.

All I want is for Tom to say full self and driving out loud.

So there you go. Full self driving.

You know, is it false advertising with full self driving?

Whatever you want to call it, FSD.

I think we can probably say with the question mark

it's probably, you know, I think bets are on

that it's going to be what's going to be announced on Friday.

I released a little poll on X as well, just underneath this post

where is it? No, it was this one.

Pick the correct answer, 57 votes.

I think a majority of people are saying it's FSD instead of Model YL.

So I think that's fair enough.

There was also another little video, too, from News Corp.

So let's have a look at this one.

So this was another reporter

with her hands kind of on the wheel,

so a bit closer to the following the rules.

And she looks like she's probably in Brisbane as well, Riz,

you know, testing some of the back roads to one FSD.

Yeah, so I guess that's where it's all happening.

I think both vehicles so far have been the Model 3s.

They've been using the Model 3

across the videos that they put out in Melbourne and Sydney

and in other parts of the world.

So possibly if it is the case that maybe it's coming to

Model 3 and the new Model Y first

that, you know, have hardware for, which is

apparently what's needed as a starting point.

But eventually, I guess it'll be rolled out to other cars as well.

So just, you know, one side note on

a bit of an observation around these videos that are surfacing.

That's right. Yeah, a lot of Model 3s being demonstrated there.

And we've got here.

Yeah, JD makes good point.

I wonder if this could spike Tesla sales upwards again.

Yeah, that is the magic bullet.

Is is FSD the magic bullet or silver bullet for Tesla sales?

Will it will it, you know,

incentivize people to buy this, buy Tesla's again

or continue to buy Tesla's because of FSD? Gents thoughts?

Roland, we'll look at, you know, get your thoughts.

Of course, we know this is not the top spec version.

Of FSD. It's a top spec option.

Look, I think realistically, it may potentially a little bit,

but I don't think you'll see a drastic number of like,

I don't think you'll see sales double all of a sudden

because this has been enabled.

Yeah, I tend to agree with Roland, Bruce.

Ten thousand like minimum at the end of the day, right?

Like, we don't know if they're going to increase the cost

because now it's come out in this whatever version that they're going to

roll it out in, but the last price was around ten thousand dollars.

So, you know, in some instances, it's a quarter of a car.

So while that's, you know, and exactly, Roland,

I think that how many people actually have it?

Will we get the subscription version where people can try it?

Will they push people to test drive?

Because there was a bit of a bit of a order is probably the wrong word,

but a bit of an instruction that Elon Musk gave out to Tesla in the US

that everyone that walks through the showrooms is expected to get

a full self driving supervised demo that was that was earlier this year.

So imagine if the Tesla stores have to do that along with,

you know, giving people a bit of a glimpse,

but I don't know if that's really going to be worth the ten thousand dollars

unless there's a subscription or it comes free with a new car for three months or whatever.

It'll be unlikely that it's going to have a huge spike in sales.

Having said that, the way these videos have come out

and the way this whole thing is sort of is playing out,

you know, part of me sort of says that this is an effort to boost

general Tesla sales.

This will get media.

This will get headlines.

We're talking about it on the show right now.

If nothing else, it will get general mainstream to start thinking about,

oh, electric cars, they can, you know, somewhat drive themselves.

And Tesla is the only brand that is at the moment in Australia

that has a product that is nearly going to be launched shortly.

It will, you know, get people started thinking about EVs and possibly

Tesla's and maybe we'll have some impact of foot traffic

into the stores, our website, online orders, conversations, those sort of things.

But I don't think this is going to be the silver bullet

where Tesla is quite a bit behind compared to their sales last year.

And I know part of it has been the Model Y

officially started deliveries, I believe in May with the new car.

But but still, we're still quite a bit behind compared to 2024.

So let's see what this does, but it's going to get a lot of publicity.

Yeah, that's the one thing where it's great point.

I think publicity is what Tesla will be after.

I also don't think it will generate, you know, significantly more sales.

You know, if anything, if Tesla were genuine about this,

they would probably reward existing customers with hardware three already

in older Model 3s and even older Model Ss and Xs with that kind of hardware.

Two point five threes, that would be great to see.

But I the skeptic of me says no, and it's already been confirmed

with with the post from Tom Drew earlier in the year,

Country Manager for Tesla Australia, saying we have been working

with local authorities across Australia and New Zealand.

And there are no regulatory blockers for release

evidenced in these videos that we're seeing now.

We're running through the final stages of validation prior to public release

and looking to start with hardware for certain vehicles

and then release in phases from there.

So just, yeah, I think that's, you know, Tom has said that before.

And I think that's what's going to happen as well.

So I think I think the money will be, you know, if we can get

if you could possibly get a second hand or use Model 3, new Model 3 with

you know, what I'm saying, you I mean, the Highland Model 3

with hardware for already inbuilt and also with FST already inbuilt

for some reason, that person at the cell.

I think that could be a really good buy to test this test this feature.

Well, exactly that Tom and one of our viewers who we've had before, Chris Quinn

he did just that couple of months ago.

He got himself, I think one of the early Highland Model 3s

and it was like, it was a long range car.

It was like crazy price, like 40 grand or something like that.

Wow, that's a great price.

It was it was crazy.

It was 40 or 45 something like that.

But nearly 30 grand off the price of that original car.

That's a lot of car.

Now, I think there's some good deals to be out, you know, that to be had

if you can find an sort of early Model 3 Highland with, you know,

40, 45 grand if you get the subscription, possibly if they launch

the subscription, which I'm really hoping they will try it for a couple of months.

For less than 50 grand, you've got a somewhat supervised self driving

vehicle, which is a that's a killer offer.

Yeah, but otherwise, you want to add FSD currently, it's $10,100 in Australia,

which is a lot of cash, honestly, you know, for a $40,000

used car, that's a quarter of the vehicle.

For a new car, it's a six of the vehicle.

It's a lot of money, as you said, subscription would be great.

I mean, I'd love to have a subscription just to test for a couple of months,

make some content, that kind of thing.

GG Gmail saying rumor Tesla FSD supervised subscription

could cost $167, $71 cents per month.

I mean, that's that's probably quite reasonable.

I think the test for a couple of months rather than paying the full amount.

That'd be great.

Yeah, Chris is asking, will there still be $10,000?

I think it probably still will be, at least for early on anyway.

Maybe maybe there's some specials in the year.

I don't know. I'm just guessing.

Storks or no storks?

Yeah, that's the question.

Will Tesla Model 3s in Australia with with the advent of no storks

returning to the ones in China we saw last week?

Will they also be becoming here in Australia with storks?

Again, that should be should be interesting to see.

Yeah.

And Ray saying Tesla is offering people transfers from hardware

three to the new models in the US.

Interesting.

Yeah, it's only dozing.

I'm not convinced this will get many new people into Tesla's,

but make it people to upgrade.

That's right. That could that could be the key, right?

It's making world headlines across world outlets as well.

So this is a Tesla righty,

quite a well known Tesla media outlets saying, yes,

Tesla FSD are coming upcoming Australia release seemingly teased by media.

That's correct.

We've seen Tesla release their own footage of FSD in Melbourne and Sydney as well.

And then we've got obviously Ben McKinnon also doing his his thing.

And also this video we saw as well.

So they're all over at Tesla righty, which is good.

Mm hmm.

And also.

Yeah, news.com reporting to I can see that

as well, right?

Guys, see anything else about it?

Any other videos or are these two the only ones so far?

I have seen

a colleague of ours, Richard Edwards, based in New Zealand

with, I think, Evie's and beyond channel.

I think he posted a quick short of that experience.

So anyone that's interested, check it out.

He's got, you know, Richard's all over the, you know, the New Zealand EV market.

And I think him and possibly Gavin,

you know, Evie Potato Man, I think his nickname is

he was also out there checking it out.

And he made a post or two, not really going through FSD, but just that they were

invited to check it out.

Very good.

Yes.

And apparently chasing cars has one as well.

OK.

Yeah, Gaffers, you know, one of the early adopters here paid the full amount

six years ago, Hardware 3 with the promise of hardware update if needed.

Yep.

I think it was as cheap as $2,000 back in the day for FSD when it first came out.

Yeah.

Yeah, Matthew, I'd like to see that too.

What I wonder if they can roll this out with free trial invites to encourage

adoption, that would be fantastic, wouldn't it?

Get all these people creating content, putting YouTube videos up.

That'd be awesome.

90 day free trial is what I vote for.

Yeah, I agree with you, Roland.

It's not a great timing.

Good number.

88 days, sorry, 88.

Yeah, 88.

What about eight months, eight days, eight hours?

Hey, hey, just cuts off.

Yeah.

Half way on the freeway.

Sorry.

Yeah, Matthew, that's right.

It's interesting that Tesla has approached traditional media about this

smart move to get a hold on the story and keep journalists informed of the tech.

Yep.

I would look from a selfish point of view would be nice if they got, I guess,

some of our smaller players, right, to test it out in the real world.

I mean, these vids look very a bit controlled, which is fine.

Traditional media need to do that for their outlets, but it'd be good to get

some in the wild for us like Roland and Riz, you know, some of our content too.

That'd be good to see, right?

So hopefully that will come in in time as well.

I think that one quick point about this, and I think just the,

just what you just said, Tom,

I think we've been covering

sort of the developments around full self-driving with our good friend

of the show, Nash and others.

I think he trial did a couple of a year or two ago in the US.

And we covered that and we've sort of been following that along.

As well as, you know, I do my bit on the driven as well, talking about all the

robot taxi stuff, all the FSD advance and things that are happening.

So those that have had subscriptions

to FSD or not subscription, sorry, those that have purchased FSD, a lot of them

are part of the community who have been quite involved with this show here,

as well as your channel and Roland, your channel as well and Facebook groups and

other places where they've been listening to the stuff that we've been saying.

So hopefully if Tesla is paying attention and is listening, you know,

they would give good YouTubers,

creators that have been following and covering this for a while like yourself,

Tom, Roland and others, a bit of a chance to test it out as well.

Because like I said, we've been talking to early adopters for a long, long time

and they're the ones that are going to be adopting this technology because they've

already purchased it.

So Tesla, if you're listening, get Tom and Roland behind the wheel of one

of your FSDs, they've both got hair.

They can make sure that they just

just to make sure that everyone's paying attention and the system will work properly.

So if anyone's at Tesla's listening, please reach out to these amazing creators.

Yeah, I can do manual combing every every 30 seconds.

It's not full self combing yet, but just look in the mirror.

Yeah, Nash, I agree.

Nash should get some FSD action too.

Good to get him back in YouTube world.

And Matthew, I agree.

I mean, they know we're going to talk about regardless and they're taking

us for granted. We feel used guys.

Rent free. Terrible.

Start charging.

Yeah, and Lewis says, I don't think my 2005 years is going to get FSD.

Leon wants a free travel.

Be whitey owners. Hey, why not?

Hey, God's eye.

That's if that's happening in China, we're going to be getting it.

Hopefully we will see some some things outside of China on that front as well.

Well, on that note, if Tesla is doing this, you know, it's the same thing that happened,

I'd say maybe five, six years ago, where Tesla kind of accelerated the whole

EV thing, where all the manufacturers started going, oh crap,

but we need to build a EV even if it's not ground up.

Let's shove a battery in a car and start doing it.

So this could potentially be the start, right?

Like if Tesla does launch this FSD thing on Friday,

who's next to launch their version of it?

Is it going to accelerate it by 10?

Yeah, look, I reckon the one company

that could take on Tesla is probably Expo, I would say.

I read you've experienced bit of XMGP in China as well.

What do you think?

Hey, to be honest, a couple of weeks ago when I was there,

they were kind enough to take me around Guangzhou in the latest version in the G7

and the Mona top spec model, which is pretty affordable car.

I was very impressed at how far it's come in a couple of months.

Based on some of the videos that I've seen from

Mark Rainford inside China Auto, good friend of the show that

he tested it a couple of months ago, and then when I sort of got a chance

to get in a car when they had activated it, it's very impressive.

Hard for, I guess, someone like me to say, because, you know,

Tesla hasn't thought that we're worthy enough to be behind the wheel of

their system yet, not worthy yet.

But but based on what I saw ex-paying with XMGP in Guangzhou,

using their latest the latest in-house developed chip

for self-driving touring, I think it's called touring.

Yeah, very, very advanced.

So there is competition, there is stuff happening.

Smart driving is a very big thing in China as Tom,

you've sort of experienced multiple times in many brands.

So there's a lot of interesting stuff coming out.

And, you know, with BYD offering it in China across all their basic models,

including as low as Seagull is the basic version.

But then it goes up with its capabilities,

depending on the type of model you're buying.

It's going to be a big, big thing very soon.

So a lot of competition.

And we hope that it gets out to all the brands and models, especially in the EV space.

Yeah, I think we need an autonomy of FSD, XMGP, God's Eye.

I'm sure Geely's got one too.

Yeah, just just test them all here, right?

Tesla can't be the only game in only dog in town.

We need to we need to the other players to come down to.

And Michael, no, ex-paying is using camera based systems, not LiDAR.

That is not true.

We they told us that in Hong Kong recently at the media day.

Yeah.

Uh, Ray, good call.

Does that mean Seagull runs on chips?

Yes, I'm sure it does run on some chips.

Nice, very good, very good.

Um, all right, let's speaking of expert, let's let's put this.

Sorry, yes, Roland, go on.

Sparing catnap has a very valid point.

Yes, is it going to dodge potholes?

Oh, OK, he says if my M3 model three can't avoid potholes on FSD,

then I'm going to constantly be taking over.

That is a great point.

Are there cameras under the car is and Roland to spot these?

Model three doesn't have the front one.

I don't know if it's used at all.

What a truth.

Now, we'll test it.

Correct.

Good response.

But Tom and Roland, Roland in particular.

I think we can't be testing this in either a model three performance

or a model Y performance with those large wheels.

If it hits a pothole, definitely going to crack the ribs.

So I think what we need to do is to get some dummy vehicles with 18 inch wheels

just to see what they're like.

But yeah, with the weather we've had in, you know, Sydney,

with all that rain we spoke about last week.

And even in Melbourne, when I'm, you know, driving around in east to Iraq

or down on the morning to Peninsula,

this, you know, on those really nice roads, you come around a bend.

And there's generally quite a few potholes that have been circled.

So someone's gone around and got a yellow spray can and labelled it.

But there's no fix.

So yeah, there's no fix.

So maybe that would make it easier for the cars.

That's right. You can see the yellow thing on the line on the lane.

Gaffer says, we all know you don't need to dodge a pothole if you're going fast enough.

Actually, I've got the VW ID buzz today and there are a lot of potholes in Sydney.

And I did run over one today at quite a bit of speed.

And yes, it's I still felt the oomph, you know, the the big what you call

the big jerk as a as it ran over it.

So it's it does mitigate a little bit, but not not to its full extent.

OK, let's move on.

That's test. I've got to be more Tesla news a little bit later on.

But I just wanted to speaking of X-Pane, I just wanted to

talk about this because last week we did talk about the GLE update and how

good GLE were with informing their customers and owners about the software updates,

including Apple CarPlay last week, which is good to see.

Now X-Pane's released a very detailed

document release notes for the five point eight point zero update for X-Pane,

which should be rolling up pretty soon.

We haven't got ours yet in our loan X-Pane G6, but looking forward to it

because it's got things like this intelligent driving upgrade, new human

machine co-pilot feature, which I'm looking forward to testing.

Apparently it jerks the car less if there's if you're trying to change

the lanes and then the cars fighting you back.

We've all experienced it.

I know when trying to change lanes on autopilot or X pilot or whatever

self driving feature you're driving at the time.

There's pet mode as well.

Not not anything too new.

We know Tesla's got pet mode as well as well as other cars.

And then in car, karaoke, hands free with Cara Fun.

Now, Roland Riz, this is something very dear to my heart.

I'd like to try this as well.

We've done this for BYD with their mic, so we might have to do a similar

reprise in the X-Pane G6 with Cara Fun.

So stay tuned for that.

Hopefully they've got a good catalog as well.

And what else is apparently there's a what is this?

Custom charging speeds as well.

So we'll test that as well.

And Australian summer coming up, they reduce the minimum temperature as well

to 16 degrees, which is nice.

We'll test that in the in the depths of summer or in the heights of summer,

I should say, in the coming months in Sydney.

There you go.

So thank you X-Pane for that very detailed release notes.

That's pretty good, right, guys?

I mean, you know, Geely's done this.

X-Pane's been pretty good with their release notes.

Hopefully BYD will pick up their game as well.

Seeing other brands do it.

OK, now someone also talked about the Geely radar being launched in New Zealand.

So let's talk about that next.

Yeah, so Justin says X-Pane also did a social media announcement about the update.

That's correct. We saw a few of those on LinkedIn and X as well.

It's good.

Yeah, excellent.

All right, so let's talk about the Geely radar.

This is your article in The Driven.

Sixty three thousand dollars for the Geely radar with three tonne toying.

And that's that's pretty good.

That's better than the BYD shark.

And what are we talking specs wise?

So three hundred sixty kilometers WTP

thanks to a seventy three kilowatt hour battery and six kilowatt V2L.

So pretty promising from the beginning.

Hmm, good discharge, right?

It is and there's quite, I think, five different outlets.

Oh,

couple in the bed, couple on the inside.

So this seventy three kilowatt hour battery pack,

I think it's sort of the mid spec battery pack that you can get in China.

There is a larger pack, but I don't think we're getting that in New Zealand.

Possibly because if you want to keep the price sort of at the same level,

because you know, shark sales are going a bit gangbusters everywhere.

And I think this is a good comparison that we need an electric

ute that is round about that, you know, sixty to seventy thousand dollar

price point and in order for them to get that the sort of kept the mid spec.

And it's not bad, you know, three and a sixty kilometers

three hundred fifteen kilowatts of power.

I believe that is a dual motor all wheel drive power trade zero to one hundred

four and a half seconds, which is quicker than shark.

I think sharks five point six

three tonne towing, I mean, it don't expect three hundred sixty kilometers of range

with three times when you're trying three tons.

But hey, it's there.

It's got more payload as well compared to the shark six.

And I've seen plenty of sort of promos and ads in other markets where

they've launched the radar ute where they say it drives like an SUV.

So that's going to be quite interesting to see.

The first radar, I wrote an article back in 2022 when it rolled off the line.

And, you know, we've been waiting eagerly.

And then in July last year, finally, they decided to release the car in Thailand.

And since then, it's gone to Singapore, a couple of other markets.

And now, of course, in New Zealand, where,

you know, it's getting closer and maybe we'll see some announcement from

Julie locally in the coming months.

Yeah, look, I think I think four point five seconds here at hundred is

pretty impressive for a ute.

I mean, that's like almost hypercar territory, really.

Imagine this tearing down your local road in a with a tradie

in a hurry to get somewhere.

But yeah, I mean, from what I saw at the Geely HQ earlier this year on my trip

to China with joy, it was very impressed.

Look, it's probably it probably feels less premium than the shark six.

But hey, I'll take a BVU at any day.

And look, as many people have said already, the range is going to drop

as soon as you start towing three times.

Look, how many how many utes do you guys see on the roads in Sydney and Melbourne

towing three tons every single day?

Very rare, right?

It's always just loaded with stuff in the back.

It's really it's small trailers.

And, you know, I mean, there's those that need some serious pulling.

And yes, there is a place for the likes of, you know,

Ram 1500s and super duties and those sort of other vehicles that are

really designed for towing.

But the proportion of people that are,

you know, buying diesel utes and not towing anything with it.

And the fact that it can tow three ton or three and a half ton

is it's all that matters to people that are buying those utes.

So the fact that this can, whether the people actually will use it for that,

is a very different story.

Yeah, that's correct.

It's it's a metric, right?

People will judge it by Ford Ranger three and a half ton.

The shark six was compared to it straight away.

I wonder what people say, you know, about the radar being three tons.

I think it's a good compromise given that it's a full EVU.

It's a good start, 73 kilowatt hour,

350 WLTP, probably 300 in the real world without towing.

Probably 150, I would say.

Many people are saying it's going to halve

if you start towing that much.

Yeah, that's right.

But hey, it's a good start.

And hopefully we get a bigger battery in time to come.

Yeah. And GGMail says I at least

RD six will have full 300 Ks at less than five seconds.

Shark six can't do that when the battery is used up.

Yeah, that's true.

That's true. Yeah, I'll take a full electric any day.

Yep. Yeah, that's great.

Three ton towing is bragging rights.

That's all it is. That's what they do it for.

Yeah, good. All right.

Well, hopefully we'll see that very soon in Australia,

given that it's a Geely brand.

We've got Geely here in Australia already.

Good. All right.

Well, at the halfway mark or thereabouts,

I want to thank our sponsors once again.

Thank you, my car, Tyrone Auto.

One sec.

My car, Tyrone Auto.

Thank you, Han Cook.

Thank you, Carl Loup as well.

And once again, I've got the competition running.

We've got five Tesla products to give away,

three mobile connectors and two war connectors.

If you've just joined us halfway in the show,

if you want to win one of these products,

send me an email to my ludicrousfeed.com,

explaining why you should win one of these.

Give us your reasons.

Lots of pictures and videos would be handy.

And with the assumption that they'll

be shared as well on the show or in future content on ludicrous feeds.

So send those emails and for your chance to win

a Tesla war connector or mobile connector.

Tom, just want to add in there that for those that don't drive a Tesla,

the war connector can be used to charge other vehicles.

It's not just specifically for Tesla.

There's a setting that can be changed

to allow all EVs with the Type 2 plug to be able to charge with it.

So it is anyone that is, you know,

wants to enter, just send Tom an email.

Thank you, Riz. Good point.

And yes, follow Roland as well.

Thank you, Jason, for that link, youtube.com at Zaptayu.

Thank you, Roland for being part of the show.

Just quickly before we move on off Tesla news, someone mentioned.

Nope, that's not it.

This is the one someone mentioned Cybertruck launching in Korea.

This is the first non North American market.

So that'd be good to see.

That's in fact on Friday as well.

Tesla Friday, they like their Fridays.

So there you go, Tesla Cybertruck in Korea.

That'd be great to see them running around Seoul.

And we talked about the Tesla model YL earlier as well as last week.

And this news article out of Khan News China,

some local outlets, media outlets not happy with the third row experience

of the YL six seater.

I think somehow unhappy with, I guess, this bump here, maybe, and other things too.

So and then quoting that, yes, the other other seven, six, seven

seaters with with more space and just bigger sort of greater length as well.

So it is on the smaller end compared to its competitors.

Yeah, I would just quickly add in there

that the efficiency of this car.

It's going to be far greater than any of its competitors that, yes,

a little bit bigger, generally boxier, no other car that succeed.

I will be able to beat it at its efficiency.

And I think from memory, it actually gets one more kilometer of range

than the long range standard car, which, you know,

credit to Tesla engineers for doing what they've done with it.

So that is just a point.

But of course, those that want a bigger car, there's probably better options out there.

Yeah, I guess I'll counter that.

Riz, I mean, you make a good point, efficiency is important.

But I think when it comes to a big car, like a six, seven seater,

I think for me anyway, having done these big trips with with more people in the car,

comfort does trump efficiency to some degree.

Like, you know, I wouldn't want to be sitting in that third row.

This gentleman looks like he's not that tall.

That's hard to tell.

But I think it'd be quite a comfortable with quite a squashed third row.

Look, I think this would be great if you were running an Uber XL or

I guess it's just a short run about round town.

But I think, Roland, as you know, with the family, it'd be hard

with six people for a long drive, right?

Well, it makes me think like, could you really fit luggage for six people in that car?

Yeah, that's the thing.

I mean, that's a backpack, right?

It's hard to fit much else.

What do you think about the Volvo EX90, so far, Roland?

I know you've had it this week.

It was flicking quick.

Look, I think that is probably a good,

good candidate for a people move out or a car that has more than five seats

where you can sit comfortably.

We did have at some point six people in the car.

Everyone was quite comfortable.

It's good that like the seats, you could move each one.

So it was a 40, 20, 40 fold so you could move each seat individually,

depending on who's sitting at the third row.

And the comfort was, I guess, quite good.

That's good.

Yeah, we enjoyed the trip to the Gold Coast, definitely in the EX90.

Although I'll present an alternative view.

I actually enjoyed the Ioniq 9 more so as a as a people mover.

I thought that was presented very well, albeit.

Yeah, look, in terms of like design and style,

I think Volvo maybe probably trumps it a little bit.

But in terms of just like comfort and cosiness,

I think the Ioniq 9 for me is the winner in that large SUV segment so far.

So yeah, wouldn't mind seeing the Zika 009 on our roads or is.

We've obviously driven it in China,

but it'd be good to see it here as well in real roads.

Well, that's that's that's the pick for me.

That 009 in the back, it's just a completely different experience.

Actually, last time I was in China,

I also got to sit in the back of a Li Auto Mega.

And that is very comfortable, but it is not Zika 009 comfort.

So hopefully we'll see quite a few.

They're selling, they're doing not too bad.

They're selling, you know, I think eight to 12 cars a month,

which is pretty good for that size and type of vehicle.

And price point and we have price point at a new brand.

So yeah, now that is definitely up there.

But yeah, comfort, of course, Ioniq 9, Kia EV9,

those sort of larger SUVs,

I think are definitely better for road tripping with a big family.

And look, Roland, you know, the new Sydney

airport's opening next year.

It's a long distance to the city.

We're going to see a lot more of these massive cars, I think,

show for people to and fro from downtown to the new airport.

They've got to have air suspension in all of them.

If you want comfort, like you've got to get air suspension.

Oh, yeah.

Hey, actually, speaking on the Model YL,

did we see the video that Auto Home, which is like a big publication in China,

they did a Moose test with the Model YL and it outdid Porsche.

I think it got like 100.

It got up to 110, 116 kilometers an hour.

And those guys just couldn't believe that how good this car was.

And this obviously it's packing the Model 3 performance suspension.

First one with adaptive dampers in a Model Y.

So, yeah, I think from that point of view, it's quite interesting.

Even the standard Model Y, the new Model Y feels quite nimble on the road.

It doesn't feel as big as the car actually is if you're taking it up sort

of twisty mountain roads and hairpins and stuff.

So, yeah, quite interesting what Tesla's doing on the suspension and dynamics front.

Yeah, a lot of these EVs, the design is so well now.

Like you don't think you're driving a big car, right?

The handling and suspension is so good.

And obviously, Tesla does it very well.

I saw a Chinese social media reel.

This gentleman was going around the new Model YL and he called it the Model YYY.

Because it's got three Y's on the back, right?

The Model Y badge is quite memorable.

All right, let's move on.

So, this is thanks to Oz EV guy on X sharing this with me.

Currently charging my IM6 performance.

Congratulations.

Absolute dream to drive.

Thank you for your videos. No problem. That's great.

Looking very schmick indeed.

Now, Joy and I have got this back to back.

The IM6 and IM5 in the same week.

So, looking forward to comparing them side by side.

So, stay tuned for those videos later on.

Roland, Zika 7X has ADR approval.

You are the ADR king in Australia.

So, walk us through this.

I've got a shortcut to that.

Two tonnes. Everyone wants to know the weight.

Two tonnes is what you can tow.

So, it says the third from the bottom towing mass break trailer.

Two thousand kilograms and 750.

I think the million dollar question that everyone's now got asking is,

what does it look like?

Is it the electronic one that you're getting Europe?

And there was also mentions in...

I did a walkthrough on the 7X ADR sheet on one of the pages.

It mentions 20 inch wheels.

But in our spec sheet, it's only got 19 and 21.

So, I don't know what's happened.

If it may be it was that it was originally going to be 20 and they just said,

you know what, scrap it, you guys get the lot, which is a good thing.

That's good.

Two tonnes is impressive, right?

I mean, sharks two and a half.

So, it's not much less than the shark six and it's an SUV.

That's really good.

It's great.

Louis says it's rolling proof.

Definitely a rolling proof.

Now, is that for the dual model performance that is doing to age?

No, so they all are.

Yeah, they all are.

Age. Yeah.

So this page specifically that model code at the top,

that is the performance spec.

But the only difference between all three variants, there were three pages of

exactly the same was the tear mass and I think the GVM, but all three of them

had the same towing.

This is interesting because in Europe from memory, when they first launched that car,

the two tonne towing was only on the all wheel drive variant.

So I'm not sure whether there's obviously there could be a change in these vehicles.

But from what I understand,

there can be errors in the way

they present these documents.

Sometimes there's some confusion, those sort of things.

But if it's two tonne and rolling off, of course, that's what this is saying.

Then, yeah, that's sweet.

Two tonne of towing.

I'm surprised you could have mentioned that previously to us like they should

have in Australia, but I think given we knew what it was going to be in Europe,

this is a good confirmation and hopefully this can make it to the website

and the spec sheet soon.

Yeah, as Jean says again, who's really going to tow two tonnes in that vehicle?

But it's boasting rights, as we've said before.

Well, of course, that's a single horse float.

Yeah, I mean, that's that's that's very possible.

Bring the horse out for a little front.

Yeah, two tonnes, two.

Sorry, two tonnes is a 16 foot caravan or a midsize boat.

I mean, midsize boat that could be quite handy.

Decent.

Yeah, we don't have medieval, medieval roads here.

It's just bush tracks.

Now, this is what you've been waiting for.

Everyone is not interested in Tesla.

The Neo Firefly Rollin again, spotting the the ADR approval.

It's coming.

Look at it.

How can you not like it?

It's cute.

Hey, it's got the iPhone lights.

Well, what's not what's not to like?

Again, keep happy on the fact that we've got an L-plated, P-plated next year.

So it'd be great to get to get cars like this

for that market, right?

This little nimble little little hatch.

Yeah, and it's a real drive.

So like that thing should.

By means drive well, should.

Correct. Well, it should be better than the mini

aceman of the mini countrymen already.

That's front wheel drive.

So I'll take a real drive any day.

105 kilowatt rear motor.

It's not bad.

It's not like super quick, but it's better than the Dolphins essential, right?

I think that's like 70, 70 kilowatts for that.

That's front wheel drive, too.

It has a front.

Has a front.

And Riz, what do you reckon?

We're talking are we talking sub sub 25, do you reckon?

Well, sub 30.

No, this would be heading closer to between 35 and 40.

It's very well put together on the inside.

In China, I think prices started sort of

twenty five thousand Australian dollar equivalent.

But when I drove it in April and Shanghai, they are it's it's mini quality.

And what's a mini these days?

Fifty to sixty grand in Australia, the mini Cooper electric.

The U.I. is very nice.

It's designed for the European market and it drives pretty well.

Interiors very comfortable, quiet cabin, high sort of, you know,

Neo knows how to make luxury cars.

So they've tried to implement quite a lot of those things into this.

And forty two kilowatt hour battery pack.

So, yeah.

And as I call it, it's the first if you know, given that it's approved for sale,

it will be Australia's first vehicle with battery swapping,

although we have no battery swap stations, but hey, it's it's starting.

I mean, I would personally be very, very interested in this car, as I said before.

And also the Geely thing, and just to give the Hyundai Insta some

competition as well, because that's pretty much the only small EV currently in our market.

If really, as you said, it's like if it's mini quality and I've seen them

for myself at the Shanghai show, it is very good.

Then, yeah, sub 40, I'd be happy to pay definitely for a car like that.

Yes, David, yes, mini is front wheel drive.

At least the countryman and an aceman is

most of them are front wheel drive and based on an ice platform as well.

Zofa asks, does this been Neo will come with their battery swap stations?

Yes. So I'm a nice book to the management in April.

They.

You know, it's a chicken and egg problem.

They need to sell the cars first and then they can invest into swap stations.

So.

I see Gaffer's comment.

So that's he's right.

Yes, yes, yes. Of course, I'm talking about passenger cars, but.

I mean, battery swapping will be huge in trucks in China.

It's massive.

But yeah, I think.

The way this car is.

It's swap stations will eventually come.

I also saw one of the co founders of Neo speak to a publication

last week where they're seriously considering the Australia and New Zealand market.

I think they're already launching in Singapore.

I believe that Neo products themselves.

So they are really expanding.

I mean, kudos to them because six months ago.

Neo looked like it was in quite a lot of trouble.

But this onvo L 90 that they've just launched is seven seater.

I checked it out a couple of weeks ago.

Very impressive for the price that they're charging for that.

That's a proper family car.

And obviously, Firefly is one of their smaller brand of newer brands.

So Neo and onvo will be the first brands to

I'm sorry, Firefly and onvo will be the first brands to enter right hand drive

markets and then we're hoping that Neo themselves with their own products like

the E.T.5, the E.T.9, all of them sort of follow and then the swap stations and

everything else. So really, really exciting.

That'll be good.

Yeah.

And here, E.V.

Two, I think that's another sort of small car that potentially might be

coming, Johnson's VW ID one.

But if anything, the softwares like anything like their cousins,

ID three, four, five, you name it,

Cooper, then I don't know, I'd be steering clear.

The software is just not good currently at the moment, especially with no connectivity.

Yes, I think Neo is considered sort of luxury in the European market.

Yes.

Yes. Thank you, guys.

I forgot about the aura.

Yes, the aura funky cap.

Well, I sort of classed that with the

bigger cars like the Dolphin and the MG four.

So this we're talking like almost sub four meter length cars like the Firefly

and the Xinyan and Insta, which is is that sub four?

It's pretty close, isn't it?

I can't remember exactly.

Yeah.

OK, so that is the Neo Firefly.

We'll keep an eye on that one, of course.

Yes, love to see the seagull too.

That's correct.

All right, different software in the ID one says

Tassie, prove me wrong, VW, prove me wrong.

We'd love to see that, of course.

Now, Pecanto, so the Insta is based on the Pecanto platform.

Just so you know.

Right, finishing up the show, guys.

So just a bit of car spotting.

So this was spotted this week.

I believe this is actually not the Geely Starray Riz.

I think this could be the LeapMotor.

You were telling me LeapMotor B10.

Yeah, no, I saw.

I think there was some different pictures we were talking about offline.

Where it was parked at a McDonald's or a KFC.

That looked like a LeapMotor.

Yeah, this this from this photo, that angle, you can sort of see the front

headlights that sort of start to curve in that, I think, is the B10.

Yes, so I this number plate here, I think is the same as this number plate.

I think even though it's blocked, I think it's the same one.

So I think this might be a B10.

Oh, yeah, yeah, this if we probably would be, yes.

Yeah, that's good.

I mean, that's, you know, we knew that was coming.

So good to see that being engineering tested on our roads.

It's good.

So that won't be too far away, I imagine.

Oh, thank you, John.

It'll be on Rivian software.

OK, if it's on Rivian software, then yes, I will definitely want to test

that not on the old VW software, which is quite disappointing still.

Powered by KFC, yes.

Well,

I mean, different powertrain.

That's fine, whatever works.

Wasn't there a bio fuel charger in the outback somewhere?

I think it was one at

it's in WA, yeah, some roadhouse.

That's it. Yeah.

Cool. All right.

That's good. Thank you.

Thank you for sending those pics, viewer Oliver M.

And also thank you to Florian as well for spotting these.

So keep those spy shots coming, guys.

And we'll finish a show off tonight on this post.

So the Waratah Super Battery in New South Wales

is up and running, I believe.

Soon to be very soon to be the largest

battery by output on earth, eight hundred and fifty megawatts of power

to store one thousand six hundred and eighty megawatt hours.

It's crazy. It's a huge battery.

Yep. So great to see New South Wales there.

Doing it, doing battery tech.

Speaking of which, I'm getting my battery installed very soon.

So video is coming.

Forty kilowatt hours.

Seag energy. Very excited, Riz and Roland.

Very excited I am.

What's happening to the power wall?

Oh, that's that's being gifted to a family member.

It lives very close.

Yes, because Tesla, as you know,

cannot be compatible with the new Tesla Powerwall 3,

whereas Seag Energy is very modular.

So I've gone with Seag.

It's not a paid endorsement.

Pay with my own money.

So that video is coming with all details.

Well, looking, looking forward to that, looking forward to that.

It's the end of the modularity is quite, quite helpful.

I mean, the aim is to hopefully install a

BD bidirectional DC charger on that as well to take advantage of Ambers price bikes.

Yeah, should be good.

Yeah, 40 kilowatt hours, same as the near firefly, right?

Well, I think exactly.

But I think, Tom, the viewers now know what you were doing before the show,

looking at that amber app and finding the best time to jump onto the live stream.

That's right.

You got me. You got me, guys.

Sprung completely.

Yeah, thank you.

Seag Energy is good to you.

I agree. It seems pretty good.

I like the modularity of it, actually.

That's why I went with it.

No DC charger yet.

That is hopefully coming later.

It's just quite expensive at the moment.

So I figured I'd get the battery first and take advantage of those amber spikes

coming into the warmer months.

All right.

Thanks, everyone.

Yes, I've got three face power.

Thank you, Ray. Yes.

Yes, Ciggy is short on stock.

Correct. I think they're coming back in the country.

OK, Riz and Roland, thank you for joining us as always.

Again, apologies to you guys and also to our viewers for the late start.

But you know what?

I think it was worth it.

What do you think? Talk about the the feature that must not be named on Friday?

Yeah.

Tesla FS Voldemort.

Bullseye first.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's right.

It's between you and us, guys, and everyone else watching on replay and on live.

Well, no, we didn't know it was coming.

Tesla has allowed me to put a question mark on my titles.

FSD question mark.

All right. So we're just speculating here, guys, tonight.

Hmm. Nothing's confirmed just yet.

All we can do is speculate.

It's Dark Lord.

Little self Dark Lord.

Oh, yes. And thank you, Gaffer.

Remember to put your emails in for a chance to win a Tesla war connector or

mobile charger. That's right.

All right. Thank you, Riz. Thank you, Roland.

Hope you've got a good week and weekend coming up.

Anything interesting coming up?

I've got I gave the

2023 MG four back, which was cool.

Still a very fun car before we get the new MG four coming up next year.

And I mean, a Volkswagen vehicle Audi Q for e-tron

rear drum brakes, I'm assuming it's in that MAB platform as such.

So that's what's happening on my end, Roland.

What's been what's happening? What's coming up?

Returning the EX 90 tomorrow and next week I pick up my Instacross.

Awesome. Nice one.

Yeah, looking for it's gone from like a massive car to like the smallest car that

has nowhere near that same level of power.

So I'll probably feel like I'm not going anyway.

But it's even though it's front wheel drive and a small little thing,

it still drives remarkably well because that torque vectoring is very good,

I must say, so it feels like a little go take your word for it.

I mean, you can you can test it for yourself, obviously,

and tell me if it's up to your role and role in standards.

I enjoyed it.

All right, guys, thanks for joining us.

Thank you to our live audience tonight as well.

It's been much appreciated.

And yeah, we shall see you all next week after the feature that must not be

named drops on Friday, whatever that might be.

Thanks, everyone, and have a great night and we shall see you all then.

Thanks, everyone. Have a good night. Bye.

Tesla Model Y

Tesla Cybertruck

Tesla Model 3

Tesla Model 3S

Seagull

BMW M3

Volkswagen Id Buzz

Mercedes-Benz GLE

Byd Shark 6

Ford Ranger

Volvo EX90

Hyundai Ioniq 9

Zeekr Zika 009

Mega Li Auto Mega

Kia EV9

Zeekr Zika 7X

Mini Countryman

Starray Geely Starray

Alpina B10

Dodge Charger

Audi Etron

About this episode

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